diff --git a/mcstatus/querier.py b/mcstatus/querier.py
index cc836d7..4b88fb1 100644
--- a/mcstatus/querier.py
+++ b/mcstatus/querier.py
@@ -136,11 +136,12 @@ class QueryResponse:
 
         while True:
             key = response.read_ascii()
-            if key == "hostname":
-                name = re.search(b"(.*)\x00gametype", response.received, flags=re.DOTALL).group(1)
-                # Since the query protocol does not properly support unicode, the hostname is still not resolved
+            if key == "hostname":  # hostname is actually motd in the query protocol
+                match = re.search(b"(.*)\x00gametype", response.received, flags=re.DOTALL)
+                motd = match.group(1) if match else ""
+                # Since the query protocol does not properly support unicode, the motd is still not resolved
                 # correctly; however, this will avoid other parameter parsing errors.
-                data[key] = response.read(len(name)).decode("ISO-8859-1")
+                data[key] = response.read(len(motd)).decode("ISO-8859-1")
                 response.read(1)  # ignore null byte
             elif len(key) == 0:
                 response.read(1)
@@ -152,9 +153,9 @@ class QueryResponse:
         response.read(len("player_") + 1 + 1)
 
         while True:
-            name = response.read_ascii()
-            if len(name) == 0:
+            motd = response.read_ascii()
+            if len(motd) == 0:
                 break
-            players.append(name)
+            players.append(motd)
 
         return cls(data, players)